Digital Taste in Mulsemedia Augmented Reality: Perspective on Developments and Challenges

Abstract

Digitalization of human taste has been on the back burners of multi-sensory media until the beginning of the decade, with audio, video, and haptic input/output(I/O) taking over as the major sensory mechanisms. This article reviews the consolidated literature on augmented reality (AR) in the modulation and stimulation of the sensation of taste in humans using low-amplitude electrical signals. Describing multiple factors that combine to produce a single taste, various techniques to stimulate/modulate taste artificially are described. The article explores techniques from prominent research pools with an inclination towards taste modulation. The goal is to seamlessly integrate gustatory augmentation into the commercial market. It highlights core benefits and limitations and proposes feasible extensions to the already established technological architecture for taste stimulation and modulation, namely, from the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Past research on taste has had a more software-oriented approach, with a few trends getting exceptions presented as taste modulation hardware. Using modern technological extensions, the medium of taste has the potential to merge with audio and video data streams as a viable multichannel medium for the transfer of sensory information.

Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality as a versatile tool in food consumer behavior evaluation: Recent advances in aroma, taste, and texture incorporation

“…Currently, smartphones with Bluetooth control the different combinations of stimuli, substituting computers (Ranasinghe et al., 2020). A microcontroller is used to deliver the pulse width modulation for stimulating participant's taste buds (Duggal et al., 2022). The tongue interface comprises a pair of silver electrodes and, a Peltier module with a temperature sensor.…”

“…The introduction of novel devices that reduce the discomfort to the individual in VE while tasting the food would aid in increasing the effectiveness of the study. While it is acknowledged that immersive technologies are still in their infancy, some of their futuristic practical platforms in the food industries would be online taste testing, developing distinct taste ranges, taste copyrighting, and gustation‐based research and divulging it through conduction experiments (Duggal et al., 2022). Being a human–computer interaction tool with the help of advanced computer graphics, the realism of the virtual world is to be improved for its immense application in the future.…”

A microfluidic sensor for continuously measuring membrane potential changes in interactions between taste substances and lipid polymer membranes

“…2,3) In recent years, biosensors based on olfactory and taste receptors have been developed. [4][5][6][7] In addition, devices that present chemical sensations, such as olfactory [8][9][10] and taste displays, 11,12) have been produced, and the development of sensors that can detect smells and tastes to produce digital information 13) is an important element of these technologies.…”